Elon Musk and other hard-right figures across Europe celebrated after Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) recorded its strongest-ever result in a state election, topping the poll in Saxony-Anhalt with 43.8 per cent of the vote, far ahead of the ruling Christian Democratic Union's (CDU) 17.2 per cent. AfD co-founder Alice Weidel predicted Chancellor Friedrich Merz would be "replaced before Christmas" and called for early federal elections, while French ministers described the result as a deeply worrying sign of populism spreading across Europe.

The AfD more than doubled its 2020 vote share in the eastern state but fell three seats short of the outright majority needed to govern alone, winning 39 of 83 seats, meaning coalition talks now lie ahead. Rival parties, including the CDU (15 seats), Social Democrats, Greens and Left Party (all around 8-9 per cent), have ruled out forming a coalition with the AfD, which German intelligence has designated a "suspected" extremist group over past use of Nazi slogans and Holocaust minimisation. Lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund hailed the result as historic, marking the closest a hard-right party has come to state power in Germany since the Second World War.